Madness
by mygiu
Summary: So, this is a free interpretation of what could happen in tomorrow's season finale. It probably won't, but I got really inspired by Muse's song "Madness". I think it really fits Dandy's relationship, and so I included a few lines of it along the way. Feel free to read the story with that music on the background! :P Again, sorry for any possible typos, English is not my language!
1. Chapter 1

They were riding up to the airport crammed in Morgan's van, the whole office gang.

They wanted to say goodbye to Mindy properly, since she had made no official parting wishes with them after the way the party had ended (sufficient to say there was a lot of alcohol flowing around and it all concluded with a fire hazard caused by a slammed group karaoke performance).

Of course, Morgan was clearly behind this surprise farewell; he adored Mindy just as much as puppies, and had been quite distraught about her leaving those past few days.

As they went along, Danny was looking out the window wondering what the hell he was doing there, being dragged by a bunch of co workers to say goodbye to someone who clearly irritated him.

But the trip turned out to be quite long, and as he begun to think about their whole time together, Danny couldn't help analyzing how he and Mindy had even got around to being friends. When he looked back at all the crazy fights they've had, it was difficult to understand.

The truth was they hadn't asked for it, like he had once said. But nevertheless - slowly and persistently - she had become a part of his life. And now she was going away for a year, and that felt weird. _A year._ That was extreme. All for this guy who had promised her a marriage and a baby. _But promises mean nothing_, Danny thought. The bottom line was that she was risking a very promising career, all for love. So he disapproved of this trip, although deep down (not that he would ever admit it) he kind of understood her: She needed the commitment, the certainty of a future family, and his doctor side empathized with the concept.

Despite their feuds, he felt sorry the party had been such a disaster. What was worse, in the midst of all the chaos Mindy had doubted her decision. But when she asked him for advice all he could muster up was a speech of how she was throwing her life away, and how he didn't respect her anymore, etc. She had trusted in his opinion and he had made her, if possible, more confused. _Way to go Danny, what a fuckwit you can be sometimes... _

So now they weren't on speaking terms, and it kind of hurt him. It also made him feel like an idiot to be there on his way to see her, when she clearly didn't want any part of him. He was much too proud to ask her for forgiveness, yet too weak to keep on the grudge.

On his defense, things with Christina had been weird, and he wasn't really sure where it was all going. His head seemed to be somewhere else, and he was losing his temper really easily. The once so hoped reunion with his ex wife was turning out to be a bit disappointing.

In fact, Christina had practically forced him to go with Morgan that morning. That had been pretty strange. The look on her face resembled almost one of surrender. _"It's okay. You should go"_ she had said, and it seemed to him that there was more meaning behind this than what laid in the surface.


	2. Chapter 2

When Morgan finally parked the van, they all run up to the Departures area. The place was humongous and one of the side walls was made entirely out of glass, letting all the sunlight of that glorious Saturday morning shine through. Spreading around the place, Betsy and Morgan were the first to see Mindy through the crowded room.

"Dr L.!" Betsy shouted.

Hearing her, the gang followed Betsy's voice and gathered around, including a very surprised Mindy and Casey by her side.

"You guys, what are you doing here?!" Mindy said.

"We couldn't let you go!" said Morgan walking towards her.

Morgan held Mindy tightly. So tightly, in fact, she couldn't breathe. Suddenly there was a whimper but it didn't come from either of them. Morgan pulled away quickly and removed little Bones from the inner pocket of his jacket.

"Sorry buddy, I keep on doing that to you! Oh my god, look at you two…" he said as he put Bones next to Mindy, both facing him with wide eyes. "I can't even decide who is cuter. Oh god, you know what? Take him with you, that way you'll remember us."

"That's so nice of you Morgan but I can't fly with the – _Morgan I said no!"_

Morgan was now trying to push Bones down her full tote. Jeremy and Beth held Morgan back and pushed him to the side as he started to bawl quite loudly.

"Let me goooo, let me go! It's okay… I couldn't leave Bon-Bon even if tried. He's the only memory I'll have from her!" he said between sobs

"That's disturbing" whispered Casey to Mindy.

Mindy nudged him softly. She was actually a little bit touched by the scene.

"He'll be alright. He just needs me too much."

She couldn't help but looking at Danny when she said these last few words and the glances they crossed were full of manic tension. But she couldn't process the moment, as it was quickly interrupted by the rest of the group (Beth, Betsy, Maggie, Shauna and Gwen) who stepped up then and swarmed Mindy, all a bunch of girls giggling and hugging her. Casey and Danny stepped away slowly next to Morgan and Jeremy.

"It's like their powers combine when they are together" whispered Jeremy.

"We are never gonna catch that plane." Sighed Casey.

"When does it take off?" asked Danny?

"Half an hour, but Mindy is bound to ravage the duty free area once we are past customs…"

"Don't worry; you leave it up to me. I'll get his bitches going!" said a recomposed Morgan.

"Morgan!" the three guys yelled.

"I'm sorry doctor, doctor, minister of the higher power… but you know, prison lingo takes over me every now and then. Anyway, look at this…"

Morgan walked over to the girls and started to elbow his way quite fiercely until he reached Mindy and locked his arms around her from behind. It sort of looked like he was taking her hostage.

"OKAY LADIES! BACK UP, BAAAAACK UP! Dr. Lahiri has to leave any minute now and can't keep track of your gibber gabber. So if you want to say goodbye, now's the time! Form a straight line here and she will greet you one by one. Don't get handsy, or teary, and most certainly do NOT mess with the order of the line! You mess with the line, you mess with ME!"

A police officer walked by and at his sight Morgan put Mindy down, smiling at the cop and petting her roughly in the head.

"Is everyone okay here? What's going on?"

"We're fine, thank you sir. There's just a lot of love going around here." Casey intervened.

"Well keep the love down, people. This ain't a circus."

As things cooled down, Mindy proceeded to hug everyone one by one until she reached Danny. They looked awkwardly at each other; there was no way they were going to hug.

"So… take care, Castellano." She mused while patting him on the shoulder.

"Hey, why so impersonal?" said Danny trying to look relaxed.

_If this was his idea of showing he was sorry, it's not working_Mindy thought.

"Well, you once said it yourself: You didn't ask to be friends. So we are not." Mindy stated coldly.

Danny looked at her with a mixture of anger and disappointment.

"Is that right? What are we then?"

Mindy looked at Danny, hesitantly. For a moment her face softened, and she had the same expression as the night before when she was asking him for advice. That really threw him off.

"What?"

"Well, if you don't know what I mean then –" But then Morgan interrupted them, pushing Mindy towards the door.

"Okay Dr. C, you are now officially MOLESTING the passenger. You used up your minutes. Show's over".

Morgan was going to lift Mindy again but Casey intervened.

"Great Morgan, thank you for that" he said rescuing and hugging Mindy at the waist.

"Uh, well… I guess this is goodbye guys. I'll email you, I promise!" said Mindy.

"And we will write you back with daily celebrity gossip, as agreed Dr.L" said Betsy.

Mindy mouthed a "shut up" to her. Gwen walked up to Mindy one last time and gave her a big hug, and then they all walked away.

Casey and Mindy started to pull out their documents and present them to the custom agent.


	3. Chapter 3

The group was walking back to the van. Danny was going a little behind them, lost in thought. Gwen noticed this and joined him.

"Hi there! You okay?" she asked curiously.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine"

"Mindy told me about the fight last night"

"It really wasn't a fight. It was more of a disagreement than anything" he said playing it cool.

"How come?" she said, confused.

"Well, she asked me what she should do and… I just spoke my mind"

"Danny… she didn't ask you for advice" Gwen clarified.

"Huh?"

"She wanted to see if you… she had doubts" she said hesitantly.

"Well, it is a long trip. It's natural to have doubts" he tried to rationalize.

"It's not the trip she had doubts about… Look, I shouldn't even say this but c'mon! How slow are you?" she said raising her eyebrows. Danny was still perplexed.

Gwen gave Danny a meaningful look. Then his face switched, a notion awaking in his head.

"Oh" he gasped.

Gwen smiled.

"Yeah, _oh_ indeed… Look, why don't you think about that a little? I'll tell the rest we will get a cab. It was crowded in there anyway"

OOOOO

Casey is holding 3 bags of duty free goodies that Mindy has compulsively bought in the last ten minutes.

"Are you sure you will need all of this for Haiti?"

"Of course! I needed a good sun blocker, a whole collection of the "Before Sunset" movies (I think you'll love them!) and a safari hat to match my… My scarf! Where's my scarf?"

"You had it with you when we arrived at the airport"

"Oh no… oh god, it was my only Hermes! I need to go find it! Could you delay the flight for a bit?"

"Mindy, the plane is leaving in 15 minutes. I am a minister, not Superman!"

"Okay, down with the attitude honey."

"Sorry but…"

"I just thought maybe you could preach them a bit about God, do a prayer or something while I go look around. I think I left it on the seating area. If I don't find it in ten minutes I'll come back, I promise"

"I still think you don't understand my powers but… Okay, go, go"


	4. Chapter 4

"I hate this, I hate this, I _hate_this! I can't make a scene. She would _love it_. So cinematographic. It's gonna be so embarrassing…"

Danny was pacing around back and forth, talking (or more like yelling) to himself out loud. Gwen was sitting down and looking at him like it was a tennis match and her face went side to side following his steps.

"That's what she adores about airports, Danny. Anything could happen!"

"But I'm not asking her to marry me! I just… I guess I don't want her to go. I mean, she's leaving for a year. And I can't see this through! And she didn't even explain it to me so how am I supposed to just _know_ how she feels…? And now it's too late and I certainly won't jump any security guard like that kid on "Love Actually"…"

"She made you watch Love Actually?" she grinned.

"Yeah, she tricked me into watching it. All these good actors are in it, and if you think about it it's not so bad but… Whatever! That's beside the point!"

His head was racing. It was… Like some kind of madness was taking control. He scratched the back of his neck as he tried to sort out what to do. Then Gwen's cell phone biped.

"Oh, twitter update from the plane! Fun! Oh, wait… Danny, I think you should read this"

Danny looked at her for the first time and grabbed the phone. He read the tweet and when the words finally sunk in, he gave the phone back to Gwen and rushed inside the airport.


	5. Chapter 5

Mindy was searching the lounge area where she had been waiting with Casey. The scarf was nowhere to be found and the place was crammed with people so it was difficult to move around.

Desperately, she grabbed her phone to look at the time. She noticed a new message on her phone. It was a text from Danny. It read:

"_I know what you meant."_

Mindy caught her breath and blushed. All of a sudden she looked up from the screen of her cell phone and saw Danny there in front of her, holding the scarf.

"Looking for this?"

"What are you doing here? I though you guys had left" she asked with a low voice.

"Yeah, they did. I just…" Danny fell silent.

They looked at each other but didn't know what to say.

"I got your message" she said raising her phone.

"Oh, yes that…"

"Weird time to start talking about this, huh?" she joked.

"Kind of, yes… It took me a while to realize…" Danny fell silent again. Then he said "Umm, anyways, you should go. I don't want you to miss the plane on my account"

Mindy's smile fell a little. He handed her the scarf. She then moved closer to retrieve it, but in doing so accidentally touched his hand. Danny grabbed it and didn't let go. They both looked at their hands, clasped and only separated by the scarf in between.

"Do you seriously want me to leave?" Mindy asked him.

"Of course not, I mean the practice -"

"Danny" she sighed exasperated.

With a grunt he let go of her hand.

"I can't do this Mindy, I can't." he yelled, freaking out.

"Why not?"

"I can't promise you anything…Certainly not the kind of things that this guy is promising you." He pointed out.

"Whoa, hold on! I didn't ask you to" she said surprised, closing the distance he had opened between them.

"You're just confused by this "movie gesture". You want signs and confessions and…" he ducked his head.

She pushed her temple against his, nuzzling her nose against his with closed eyes.

"No, no, no, Danny…"

A few seconds of silence fell between them as they remained with foreheads pressed against one another, eyes shut.

"I just came here because, I don't know. It doesn't feel right, you know? You going away. I don't even know why… that is all." He said, resigned.

With pained eyes he backed away from her. She looked at him half expectantly, but nothing else came out of his mouth. She knew he was fighting the urge to let this go deeper. He didn't believe in these romantic displays (or at least not as strongly as she did), and mostly she knew he didn't want to lead her on.

He wasn't going to ruin this chance and this trip for her. Because that's who he was: a guy who _cared_.

He didn't look like it at first, but in this time being friends she had gotten to know the real Danny. He was a person who would rather eat up his feelings or downplay it if necessary, just as long as he knew she would have a better future with someone else. He just wanted her to be happy. That trait made both his charm and his weakness.

She had remained hopeful though because, in spite of all of this, he had come anyway. And he had let those damn words slip out of his mouth. Those were huge steps for him. Mindy was sure all that nothing meant something.

"I think you're better off leaving." He said with a croaked voice.

"I guess…" she said staring at the floor.

"This will pass, trust me. We just got confused, or temporarily mad or whatever. This distance… it will be good. We'll be fine." He stated with more confidence.

Suddenly Casey showed up behind them, and since they were apart he couldn't really tell something had happened. But somehow he felt like the third wheel. They both turned to look at Casey for a second and then back at each other.

"Hey Danny, I see you found the scarf! I'm sorry to interrupt but it's getting late... Are you coming, mama?"

Mindy nodded, still looking at Danny.

"Okay, I'll let you guys say goodbye and I'll meet you in the plane okay?"

"Yes, I'll be right there." She said with a weak smile

Casey left towards the queue and didn't look back. He didn't want to know if there was something going on there, and he certainly didn't want to feel like the odd one out again.

"Okay, so, you heard the man. Gotta dash!" she said in a fake British accent.

"Yeah" he said scratching the back of his neck.

The fake enthusiasm was palpable. Danny put his best poker face on, but it was not enough.

Mindy walked to him rather quickly and instead of kissing him on the cheek she shyly pressed her lips on the corner of his mouth. His composure fell within a second. His heart tugged at him like crazy, almost as if he had been stabbed.

"Bye" she whispered.

"Bye" he mused.

They both turned to different paths and started to part.

Mindy walked towards the line, looking behind her twice to see if there was any effect regarding her last move. Danny headed towards the exit, looking behind him too. But they were off in the timing; one looked back when the other one returned their gaze to the front.

Mindy sat besides Casey and he grabbed her by the shoulder, squeezing her a bit. He looked pretty excited and relieved she was now on the plane. Mindy covered her mouth a bit with the scarf that now smelled like Danny's perfume. She looked out the window with pursed lips, her eyes watering a little.


End file.
